1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an implantable surgical muscle support sling to reinforce a weak or ineffective extraocular muscle for ideally treating ptosis and strabismus. The muscle support sling is sutured between a movable target (i.e., insertion) tissue and an immobile base (i.e., origin) tissue to orient and hold the target tissue relative to the base tissue as would have been the case had the extraocular muscle been normal.
2. Background Art
It is sometimes necessary to overcome the effects of a weak or ineffective ocular muscle which is known to cause ptosis or strabismus. To treat these problems, a movable target tissue of a patient is repositioned relative to an immobile base tissue to correspondingly reposition the patient's eyelid or realign the patient's eyeball. Repositioning the eyelid to treat ptosis is typically accomplished by one or more thin threads which are sutured between the target and base tissues. However, the conventional threads tend to migrate or “cheese wire” through the patient's tissues over time. Consequently, the patient's eyelid will droop once again or the eyeball becomes misaligned so that the original problem recurs in a few months. What is more, using the conventional threads to treat ptosis often causes unsightly peaking or notching of the eyelid when the patient's target tissue below the eyelid is pulled towards the base tissue near the eyebrow. In this same regard, no elastic thread implant system is readily available that effectively repositions the eyeball to treat strabismus. Accordingly, a more effective and cosmetically acceptable means and procedure for treating ptosis and strabismus are desirable.